Follow @stlgoalie The Blues blew another lead and frittered away yet more points yesterday afternoon when they lost 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild. The Blues effectively lost the game in 25 seconds early in the 2nd period.
Oskar Sundqvist opened the scoring with about a minute left in the 1st period. Zach Sanford makes the zone entry and originally makes a poor play along the all but he stays with the play, battling hard along the wall.
The Blues were unable to beat Devan Dubnyk again even though they had some quality chances.
While most players give standard answers to questions after a game, Ryan O’Reilly’s interview was telling as you could hear the frustration in his voice. O’Reilly said “very disappointing. Frustrating one. We lapsed in the 2nd and responded in the third. There a more veteran team that stuck with it and wait for us to make a mistake. It’s disappointing. We easily could got that into OT and we didn’t.
They clutch and grab a lot…..it’s tough to generate against those guys…It’s frustrating. …..We missed two points there.… The more I see of him and his game, the more I like.
Coach Yeo had similar sentiments. “I thought it was a winnable game. Made the wrong mistakes at the wrong times. Mistakes we’re making obviously are big ones……The mistake is not being firm enough in your play (Parayko)…The chances we give up are unnecessary….goals where our gaps not strong enough, we’re not strong enough or not making a hard enough play or a strong enough play and it ends up in the back of our net.… He talked about how they need to “defend more aggressively… and gave up “too many easy entries….
According to Yeo, “it comes down to bearing down…. You gotta make plays….bear down and make them….sometimes making the play is just getting the puck out of your zone. Sometimes it’s making a hard play. Sometimes it’s making a more poised play. “
When Yeo was asked about the team heading the right way – “It feels like it but we have to win games. Again this was a winnable game. It was there for us and we didn’t find a way to win the game. We found a way to lose the game.…
How much longer will ownership and management keep on the same path if the wins don’t start coming in bunches?
NHL Champions for Charity We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. More on that to come.
It’s a great day for hockey.